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European Gaming Q3 Meetup Part I: Mastering the Player Lifecycle

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The European Gaming Q3 Virtual Meetup that took place on 13 September had it all: from Commercial Marketing and the Player Lifecycle, to Employer Marketing, Talent Acquisition and Retention, industry experts from the European iGaming scene provided insights in two informative and honest panels that no professional should miss! Read on and find the link to the Livestream recordings to watch the EGQ3 Meetup on YouTube!

The European Gaming Meetups by Hipther Agency are designed to keep you up-to-date with what is fresh in the European gambling industry.

The meetups feature several panel discussions per region and topics that are joined by key industry experts, CEOs, C-Level Executives, Business Development Managers, and sometimes government officials/regulators.

The European Gaming Q3 Virtual Meetup featured two thought-provoking panels: “Mastering the Player Lifecycle” and “The Importance of Company Culture in iGaming”.

 

Panel 1: “Mastering the Player Lifecycle”

Speakers: Domenico Mazzola, Sales Director at Flows | Thomas Kolbabek, CTO at Golden Whale Productions

Moderated by: Zoltan Tundik, Co-founder and Head of Business at Hipther

Watch the Panel Discussion on YouTube and HiptherTV!

The panelists kicked off the discussion by delving into the fundamentals of mastering the player lifecycle. Domenico Mazzola emphasized the importance of Marketing Campaigns Automation, highlighting the need for real-time data to inform successful marketing strategies. He stressed the significance of A/B testing and underscored the competitive landscape, where companies vie for players’ attention amidst constant distractions from platforms like Netflix and social media. Therefore, data should be harnessed for precise player profiling and segmentation, enabling customized promotional strategies.

Domenico furthered his analysis by pointing out that while leveraging data is ideal, many corporations lack the necessary focus. Startups often cut corners and prioritize rapid acquisitions, while established organizations move slowly, missing out on technological innovations.

Thomas Kolbabek concurred with the data-driven approach and stressed the importance of data collection for effective segmentation, allowing for personalized customer targeting and messaging. He advocated for engaging all players, not just VIPs, to achieve higher retention rates. Real-time data, according to him, is crucial for tracking player activity and tailoring the player experience, incentives, and messaging accordingly.

The panelists also explored psychological triggers and personalized experiences. Thomas discussed player types, their preferences, and the need to identify the reasons behind their behavior for a successful retention strategy. He distinguished between immersive players who appreciate gaming details, such as animations, and money-oriented players who focus on gameplay and winnings. With recorded gameplay data and identified psychological triggers, online casino companies can personalize the player experience by adjusting gaming details and messaging.

Domenico took personalization a step further, emphasizing the importance of creating original, personalized content and offers. He concurred with Thomas on the necessity of having the right system and tools in place for real-time data collection. He acknowledged that many companies face challenges in this area, often stuck with legacy systems that are difficult to update. He stressed the need for companies to recognize the importance of appropriate data tools for the success of acquisition and retention strategies.

 

Regarding case studies of successful retention strategies, both guests refrained from providing specific examples due to privacy concerns. However, Thomas shared a successful “formula”: running test campaigns for incentives, bonuses, and customized messaging, leading to the development of automated machine learning models, resulting in a 75% uplift in retention and a 25% uplift in player activity.

Domenico shared that his experience with B2B and B2C companies has shown that focusing on specific KPIs can significantly accelerate the development cycle, reducing it from months to days.

Both speakers agreed on the value of AI and technological advancements, particularly in graphics resources and highly customized messaging.

In conclusion, Thomas summarized the process of building a successful retention strategy, emphasizing the importance of identifying specific problems, gathering data, and hypothesizing to create machine learning models under a top-down KPI-based approach. Domenico reiterated that data and automation are imperative for retention strategy development, stressing the importance of investing in the right tools for the retention process.

Read more about the second part of this exciting and informative edition of the European Quarterly Meetups, a panel discussion on Company Culture in iGaming!

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Ex-Binance exec Ryan Horn joins Press Box PR as Growth and Business Development Advisor

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Press Box PR, an award-winning digital PR agency specialising in betting, gaming, sport, consumer, retail, and hospitality, has announced the appointment of former Binance sports partnerships leader Ryan Horn as its new Growth and Business Development Advisor.

Horn will work closely with Press Box PR’s leadership team to drive strategic growth initiatives, advise on international opportunities, and support clients navigating the fast-evolving intersection of sport, payments, gaming, and emerging technologies.

With offices in London and Manchester, Press Box PR is renowned for securing earned media coverage across gambling, sports, consumer, finance, hospitality, and catering publications. The agency also helps brands increase visibility in AI-generated answers, citations, and large language model (LLM) recommendations. Press Box PR was named PR Agency of the Year at the 2026 European iGaming Awards.

Horn brings over 20 years of experience at the crossroads of global sport, commercial partnerships, and digital innovation. He has collaborated with major organisations including FIFA, UEFA, the International Olympic Committee, Formula 1, and the Rugby Football Union, helping connect global brands with some of the world’s largest sporting audiences.

He co-founded Brandtix, a sports data intelligence company that introduced a data-driven approach to sponsorship measurement, and later held senior roles in the global advertising sector, including Chief Business Development Officer at Euro RSCG, managing sponsorship strategy and campaigns for top-tier brands.

More recently, Horn led sports and digital asset partnerships at Binance, working with figures and organisations such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Mike Tyson, and Italian Serie A club Lazio, with a focus on the convergence of sport, digital payments, fan engagement platforms, and online gaming ecosystems.

In his role at Press Box PR, Horn will provide strategic insight on emerging areas shaping modern sports business, including AI-driven fan engagement, tokenised commerce platforms, global payments infrastructure, and the digital transformation of sport.

Alex Donohue, Founder and Managing Director of Press Box PR, said:
“Ryan has spent his career at the intersection of sport, technology, and commercial innovation. His experience and network will be hugely valuable as we expand internationally and support clients across sport, betting, and fintech.”

Horn added:
“The digital transformation of sport is creating entirely new commercial ecosystems. I’m excited to join Press Box PR and help clients navigate and communicate their role in this evolving landscape.”

The post Ex-Binance exec Ryan Horn joins Press Box PR as Growth and Business Development Advisor appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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Choice Gaming

Choice Gaming: Expanding Across Slots, Crash, Instant and AI Live Casino

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Choice Gaming produces and distributes content across four key verticals: slots, crash games, instant formats, and live casino offerings via its dedicated Kiss division. The company maintains full control over concept development, visual direction, and release scheduling, ensuring a cohesive and strategically aligned portfolio.

Collaboration-Driven Product Development
A cornerstone of Choice Gaming’s approach is integrating public figures and cultural collaborators directly into the design of its games. In the crash segment, Evra Crash was developed in partnership with football legend Patrice Evra, incorporating his likeness, persona, and competitive identity into the game’s mechanics and presentation.

In the instant category, Mono Choice was created alongside contemporary artist Alec Monopoly. The title embeds elements of his signature artistic style throughout the creative execution, extending well beyond surface-level branding.

The collaboration approach also extends to live casino offerings. As part of its cross-vertical strategy, the company launched Evra Sic Bo, a live table game featuring Patrice Evra’s identity integrated into the format.

Live Casino: Kiss Division
Through the Kiss division, Choice Gaming operates an AI-driven live casino infrastructure. Kiss AI Live Casino replaces traditional fixed studios with digitally generated environments and AI-controlled dealers. Operators can customize dealer appearance, ethnicity, attire, language, atmosphere, and studio design without altering the table structure.

The live portfolio includes multiple Sic Bo tables, each offering distinct dealer presentations and visual styles, creating differentiated table experiences within a scalable framework.

Slot Portfolio
Choice Gaming’s slot catalogue features fully in-house developed titles designed for multi-market deployment. Each release adheres to a defined concept and visual framework, avoiding reused layouts or re-skinned games. The company’s roadmap includes continued expansion of slot themes and innovative design directions throughout the year.

Crash and Instant Segments
Beyond collaboration-led releases, the crash and instant categories continue to grow with titles built around streamlined mechanics, clear visual identity, and structured gameplay positioning.

Scaling with Control
Choice Gaming continues to expand across all verticals while retaining complete oversight of production, creative direction, and collaborative integration, ensuring consistent quality and innovation across its portfolio.

The post Choice Gaming: Expanding Across Slots, Crash, Instant and AI Live Casino appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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Groove

Groove Rolls Out Next-Gen Instant Tournaments Solution

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In an industry where player attention spans diminish rapidly, leading platform and aggregator Groove has launched what could be the most valuable weapon in the fight for engagement: their groundbreaking Instant Tournaments Tool.

This groundbreaking advancement enables operators to envision, set up, and initiate high-stakes tournaments straight from Groove Command’s back-office faster than it takes to make a pot of coffee, no developers needed, no delays, only sheer competitive excitement at the speed of now.

The development team, under the guidance of Product Development Head Shay Kababie, observed with pleasure as the initial live test occurred. An experienced casino operator, who was initially doubtful, launched a $10,000 Blackjack Blitz with only a few clicks. The outcome? A sudden increase in players, soaring engagement statistics, and revenue boosts, all happening before lunchtime arrived.

“This alters everything,” the operator said, observing leaderboards illuminate in real-time.

For years, creating tournaments involved managing intricate technical specifications, relying on overloaded development teams, and hoping that everything would run smoothly at launch. Groove’s approach completely eliminates these obstacles.

The new advancement in the Groove Command platform is already causing a stir in the iGaming industry, as beta testers indicate significant increases in player involvement and earnings.

“This isn’t just an upgrade, it’s a fundamental shift in how operators compete,” says Rachel Tourgeman, Head of Partnerships at Groove. “Our partners have been begging for a solution that keeps pace with player demand. Now they can create high-stakes tournaments faster than most teams can schedule a meeting. We’re seeing operators launch tournaments around live sports events, viral trends, even competitor outages, all in real time.”

Operators can now react to market trends with the quickness of day traders, identifying an opportunity in the morning and profiting from it by afternoon. Looking to take advantage of a competitor’s downtime? A competition exists for that. Looking to reconnect with inactive VIPs? The ideal challenge is merely a few clicks away.

This advancement integrates effortlessly into the Groove Command ecosystem, the most robust back-office platform in the industry. In this scenario, establishing a tournament is merely one tool in a well-equipped arsenal. Operators have total control over their operations, encompassing detailed game management, real-time financial analysis, compliance protections, and now, immediate competitive experiences that engage players continuously.

The consequences are significant. While rivals may take days or weeks to set up tournaments, operators using Groove can experiment, refine, and enhance various tournament formats in just one afternoon.

The platform’s user-friendly interface masks its advanced features, customizable prize formats, interactive leaderboards, and specific player segmentation can all be effortlessly set up via a sleek dashboard.

“Speed has become the ultimate competitive advantage in iGaming,” explains Kababie. “We’re not just giving operators tools, we’re giving them the ability to outmanoeuvre competitors at a strategic level. The team that can launch a perfect tournament when a trending slot drops, or capitalise on a major sporting event in real-time, that’s the team that wins.”

Looking ahead, Groove’s roadmap promises even more disruptive innovations, including AI-driven tournament suggestions and automated optimisation algorithms. But for now, the message to the industry is clear: the tournament landscape has changed forever, and operators who hesitate will find themselves hopelessly outpaced.

Yahale Meltzer, Co-Founder and CEO of Groove, explains the strategic advantage: “For years, operators have been trapped in a cycle of slow, expensive tournament development. We’ve broken that cycle. Now when an operator sees Messi score a hat-trick or Drake tweet about a new slot, they can capitalise immediately. That agility is worth millions in today’s market.”

Perfectly incorporated into the Groove Command platform, the Instant Tournaments Tool complements a range of operator-centric innovations such as real-time analytics, automated compliance verification, and data-informed game suggestions. The user-friendly interface of the system enables operators to configure personalized rules, prize frameworks, and qualification criteria effortlessly through easy dropdown menus, eliminating the need for coding skills.

In the future, Groove has hinted at new features such as AI-driven tournament enhancement and large-scale cross-operator events. However, as Meltzer observes, “The true revolution is occurring at this moment, in the possession of operators who realize that speed is the new greatest competitive edge.”

Meltzer states, “The tournament arms race has changed permanently and Groove has just given operators the nuclear codes.”

The post Groove Rolls Out Next-Gen Instant Tournaments Solution appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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